1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stall for housing an animal to be subjected to an animal-related action, comprising enclosure means defining a space and having at least one passage permitting the animal to enter said space, and equipment for the performance of said action regarding the animal being present in said space.
Automatic milking of cows is known from e.g. EP-A-91 892. Automatic milking may take place in one or more automatic milking stalls provided in a barn in which the animals are allowed to walk about freely and find their way individually to the milking stalls. The cows are automatically identified in each stall with the aid of a computer connected to identification means. By means of the computer, in which facts concerning each cow when she was last milked, etc. are stored, a milking robot is activated. The stall also comprises retaining gates which are automatically closed to retain the cow during milking and opened to let the cow leave the stall. Traditionally, cows are milked twice a day. Because of high labour costs it was not interesting to increase the number of milkings per day as long as milking was performed manually. It is however recognized that milking a cow three to four times a day has proved to be of less detriment to her, since the udder is not filled to its maximum between each milking. Such a milking procedure corresponds more closely to the behaviour of the calves and therefore results in healthier cows. As a side effect, however, it is possible to increase the total milk production from one cow by 15-25% by increasing the number of milkings per day. By means of automatic milking machines it is not only possible, but would also be economically interesting to milk the cows more often than twice a day, since the labour costs are not any longer critical. In this case it is rather the high investment cost which is the limiting factor. Therefore, in order to reach a high utilization of the capacity of such automatic milking machines and in order to reach such a high milking frequency by a reasonable number of automatic milking stations, it is desirable or even necessary to enable the cow to develop a trust in the milking station and the automatic milking machine. Only then she will voluntarily and frequently enter the milking station. In view thereof it is of course very important that she does not associate the milking station with anything which hurts or is disagreeable to her.
The weekly magazine BOERDERIJ No. 15 from Jan. 12, 1988 describes a transportable container accommodating an automatic milking system for milking an animal. Because the container can be closed completely, climate control is necessary for keeping the automatic milking system frostfree.
However, the cows and other animals also must be subjected to other animal-related actions than milking, for example medical treatment, teat and body cleaning, insemination, automatic feed supply, etc. Also in these cases it is important that the place where such animal-related actions are performed is not associated with disagreeable experiences. It is believed that the performance of such animal-related actions is easier and thus more effective when the animal feels comfortable and safe.
Another problem is that the atmosphere in a barn housing many animals walking about freely is of poor quality. Such an atmosphere may contain many problematic substances, such as ammonium, chlorine, and other corrosive and aggressive gases, moisture, etc. Such substances may reduce the reliability of the sophisticated mechanical and electronic equipment necessary for the performance of a more or less automatic milking procedure. Moreover, they may deteriorate the quality of the milk and influence the health and the comfort of the animals negatively. Moreover, the temperature in such a barn housing many animals is in many cases too high, which is uncomfortable for the animals and may deteriorate the quality of the milk.